Wow... not a single mention out there of John Irving.

Anyone heard of him? Wrote books like The World According to Garp (movie starring Robin Williams), The Cider House Rules (the movie version won him an Oscar for best screenplay), A Prayer for Owen Meaney (the movie Simon Birch was based on this book), and The Hotel New Hampshire? Here's a title that might intrigue some of you: The 158-Pound Marriage? (one of the main characters was a wrestler at Iowa)

John Irving also wrestled for Exeter Academy under coaches Cliff Gallagher and Ted Seabrooke. He has been a wrestling coach throughout the years, but I think he's taken a break from that. You'll find wrestling talk in almost all his novels. He's got a collection of short stories and memoirs called Trying to Save Piggy Snead that's pretty good. There's a picture in that book of Irving getting tripped by Dan Gable at wrestling practice (Irving was a professor at Iowa's Writer's Workshop M.F.A. program when Gable was coaching, and he occasionally worked out at practices).

In short, he's a good novelist with some strong ties to wrestling. FYI.